ABOUT ME:
My name is Nate, I am a diesel tech for Ziegler Caterpillar in Fergus Falls, MN. I mainly work on farm, and compact construction equipment. I used to work at a small transmission shop in Alexandria, MN, and went to Alexandria Technical college for diesel mechanics and graduated with an AAS degree (honor roll, woop woop!!) in 2012.

Now on to the good stuff! Here is my truck the day I bought it!

Here is my truck now!

Here is some shots of in-between!

I bought the truck in april of '12

Anyway, plans for the truck were for just a simple longevity build, but that tanked because I have a bad motor.

I recently pulled the injectors and put brand new alliant AD code injectors in, new glow plugs, and UVCH's truck smokes like a pig when its cold and has a miss until its warm
Compression tests revealed cyl 1-7 were 395-410 PSI. Cyl #8 turned out with barely 300 PSI.

So now what? well, I have been tossing the idea around of fixing up the rest of the truck and selling it for a 6.4, or a late model 5.9 cummins. But then I ran into a different situation. A fellow employee has a 2000 7.3L with nearly 400,000 miles, and his motor went bad. cyl 8 has about 80 PSI. He bought a used running motor from a van with all the dressings. SO he offered to sell me his old motor.

NOW the game has changed. I just put in a quadpillar gauge set, put on a New(to me) 2010 RUST FREE bed, which came with the '10 tailights and harness and have made a decision to build a block capable of 500-600HP. So, keep an eye on my build page, learn some stuff, teach me some stuff, grab a brew have a good time!

I have free oil sampling at my work place, so I will be posting the results every time I have a fluid changed (recommended intervals) and a posting of what type of fluid I used, so you can get a good idea of what to expect from each fluid in your truck!

I really like the bed liner on my truck, it's herculiner. It holds up well in spots there isn't too much rust. It held up surprisingly well to the harsh mn road salts. It needs another coat coming up here, my advice is to bring it to a line-x dealer, and have them line x it. My local dealership charges 1200 for it, but I think I should have done that. It's nice to be able to not worry about scratching paint or anything with the lower half of the truck, and if it chips or anything, just slap a brush on it and it looks pretty decent!

Alright! to kick off this build page, I'm going to learn ye how to make a...

DIY STEERING STABILIZER BRACKET:

Supplies you will need to make a DIY steering Stabilizer!!
2x U-Bolts
1x Chevy fuel pump block off plate
This block off plate is extremely easy to find. I can just about guarantee that your local O-Rielly auto parts will have this component in stock, and on the shelf! I see them at nearly every auto parts store, but in a worst case scenario, its available here at summit racing!http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mrg-1515/overview/

Dimensions for the U-Bolts (this is not to scale, I had to cut the u-bolts length down to fit properly, the dimensions listed is how long you want the u-bolts to be.)

Tools you will need!
Proper PPE (Personal Protection Equipment, I'm not talking about your Colt 1911 gentleman, I'm talking your safety glasses, hearing protection, and a pair of gloves!)
7/16" drill bit
Hacksaw- for cutting u-bolts to length, if they are too long.
Drill, or drill press
File, or pliers to remove the "blow-out" from drilling through the plate.
Hammer
and Center punch

Even I am not too cool for safety gear!

The recipe!:
First, eyeball the center of the plate, and mark it

Use a center punch, and mark the area for your drill bet. I recommend drilling a pilot hole with a smaller drill bit, but feel free to just use your 7/16" bit on it if you don't have any other drill bits.

Drill that mutha fudga!!!

File the blow back down, or pull it off with pliers. I used a combination of the file and pliers to get the blow back off.

Hey folks! checking in with you again... letting you know I have started removing my stock suspension components to start putting in a 6" lift kit Tonight, I was able to get the truck propped up on some jackstands, yanked the wheels, pulled the shocks/shock mounts u-bolts for the front leafs, and the track bar mount. I ran into some trouble with the track bar mount, for those of you that have removed the mount before, may have found out that there is a ridiculously awful nut strap in the frame that holds the nuts for the mount onto the frame. I somehow managed to strip out the strap and had to cut the head of the bolt off to get the trackbar mount out. well, in doing so I had to wreck the strap. GREAT. So, I have been messing around with that all night trying to get the strap out of the frame.

Anyway, hoping to put some pictures up of the completed truck this weekend! Stay tuned!!
-Nate

Update! Got the lift in around 4 PM, and was late for work The dang truck fought me the entire removal/install process. Damn you MN rust!!! I am at work (on break) right now, so no pictures yet, But I will upload some tonight when I get home

For those of you looking to put a used lift kit in your truck, make sure you know what you are getting!!!! Several of the U-Bolts that I recieved were not even close to the correct size, bolts were stripped, and the leaf springs took a hell of a lot of work to squeeze in to the proper mounting positions! I did manage to get all the correct components though, so not a big deal there.

Overall, I would say the ride quality has both improved and declined. Improved in the sense that now I can turn my wheels from lock to lock without hitting/rubbing anything and the truck looks hella cool rollin down the Interstate. Declined in the sense that I know now what it feels like to have every single bone in your body rattle!

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